From the succulent on your desk to the money tree by your front door, inconspicuous, leafy green plants are some of the most fascinating living things on Earth.
Click start to play today’s Crossword. Whether a fruit, vegetable, nut, or flower, everything in today’s puzzle comes from a plant!
Just as you have to remember to water your plants every few days, plants too, have a very real form of memory, despite not having brains. A 2014 study by scientists at the University of Western Australia found that the mimosa pudica, or what is commonly known as the touch-me-not plant, has long-term memory and can even learn new behaviours, just like animals.
Scientists trained the mimosas’ short- and long-term memories by repeatedly dropping water on them with a custom-made apparatus. They discovered that the plants stopped folding up their leaves when they learnt that the disturbance had no damaging consequences. Their memory of the experience remained for several weeks, even after environmental conditions had been changed.
The touch-me-not’s remarkable behaviour continues to puzzle the scientific community, as they still do not fully understand the mechanisms of memory in plants despite their lack of brains and neural tissues. But a working theory suggests that plants have a complex signalling network in their cells that is calcium-based, and it functions like memory processes in animals.
But that’s not all. Plants also have the ability to measure time. A 2014 study in the US-based scientific journal Plant Signalling and Behaviour found that the seeds of the begonia plant remain dormant unless they experience long days. If they note darkness of more than 12 hours, they remain dormant, and if the night length reduces to eight hours or less, they immediately germinate.
Amazed by these remarkable plants? Play today’s Crossword and let us know if you enjoyed it at games@gulfnews.com.
